4 . Via Rail

Train Tickets from New York to Washington

Station	Departure	Arrival	Price
Penn Station—Union Station	12:20 am	3:57 am	$19
Penn Station Union Station	4:20 am	8:33 am	$29
Penn Station—Union Station	6:02 am	10:14 pm	$60
Penn Station—Union Station	8:00 am	10:58 am	$70

Discount Policies

Seniors (above 60 years old) can benefit from a 20% discount offered by Via Rail, making it a cost-effective choice for their travel needs.

Luggage(行李) Allowance and Restriction

Via Rail allows passengers to bring up to four pieces of luggage. Carry-on items must not exceed (超过) 50 pounds and checked luggage must not weigh more than 50 pounds per item.

Passengers are allowed to bring bicycles and sports equipment on Via Rail trains.

Food and Drink Service

Via Rail provides food and drink service for purchase, offering a variety of dining options to passengers.

Payment

Via Rail accepts various payment methods, including credit cards, Interac Online, and pre-paid credit cards. It is advisable to check the website for the most up-to-date information on accept able payment methods.

Facilities for Passengers with Special Needs

Via Rail is committed to providing accessibility for all passengers. The trains are equipped with accessible restrooms, seating areas, and boarding assistance for passengers with mobility issues. Additionally, staff members are trained to assist passengers with disabilities to ensure a comfortable travel experience.

E-ticketing

Via Rail offers the option to use the e-ticketing system, allowing passengers to present their ticket on a mobile device without the need for printing.

1. Which train takes the least time?

A．The 12:20 am one.

B．The 4:20 am one.

C．The 6:02 am one.

D．The 8:00 am one.

2. How much should a couple in their seventies pay if they take the 6:02 am train?

A．$60.

B．$96.

C．$112.

D．$120.

3. What can we learn about Via Rail from the text?

A．It serves food and drink for free.	B．It is developing a new e-ticketing system.
C．It doesn’t allow sports equipment on board.	D．It provides convenient access to the disabled.

7 . When scientists and the public worry about sea level rise, they mostly focus on when and where communities will be permanently flooded. But there’s another consequence of rising seas that will affect many more people much sooner: getting cut off from roads and other critical infrastructure (基础设施). It’s a threat that society has not paid nearly enough attention to, says Allison Reilly, a civil engineer at the University of Maryland.

In a new paper, Reilly and her colleagues show the width and pace of the isolation (隔离) threat. Inspired by her work on the eastern shore of Maryland, where people already need to adjust their travel and work schedules to account for tides that frequently flood roads, Reilly and her colleagues calculated that, with one meter of sea level rise, twice as many people across the coastal United States will be isolated than will be fully flooded.

Worse still, many places currently considered at low risk of sea level rise suddenly become much riskier when isolation is taken into account, Reilly says. While planners know that low-lying Florida will be severely flooded, Maine, with its high rocky coasts, is generally thought to be at low risk. But Reilly’s work shows many Mainers are in great danger of being cut off by flooding in coastal communities and river valleys.

This far more immediate effect of rising seas needs to become part of the broader planning process. That kind of planning is starting to happen around the Chignecto Isthmus, an interprovincial land bridge in Canada, connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments are considering a variety of plans to raise or replace the dikes (坝). For Ollerhead, a Nova Scotian, that work can’t start soon enough. “It will take a lot of sea level rise before Nova Scotia becomes an island, but you could have a storm that cuts off the major transportation links for days, weeks, or months,” he says. “It’s nearly impossible to predict when, but it will happen eventually.”

1. What is the threat Allison Reilly mentioned in paragraph 1?

A．The rising sea level.	B．Flood-related isolation.
C．Permanent flooded areas.	D．Irreparable infrastructure.

2. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．Conclusions of a new paper.	B．Calculations of collected data.
C．Situations of Eastern Maryland.	D．Influences on coastal United States.

3. Why are Florida and Maine mentioned in paragraph 3?

A．To clarify a point.	B．To offer a solution.
C．To present an assumption.	D．To illustrate a reason.

4. What’s Ollerhead’s attitude toward the governments’ planning?

A．Dismissive.

B．Doubtful.

C．Favorable.

D．Unclear.

8 . When my doctor was delivering his speech on statistics and survival rates, those cruel words upset me terribly. He might be telling the truth, but I realized there was a need for a special human _________ , especially for a new cancer patient like me. I _________ to do something.

I called my local _________ and asked if I could give a speech to the community, about “What to Say and How to Help When Someone Has Cancer”. The _________ came five minutes later, “... we would be pleased to have you _________ your topic to the community.”

As the day approached, I got _________. What if no one _________ and all the preparation and work was for nothing?

Despite the worries, things went _________. At 6:45 pm on a Tuesday evening, I started my presentation by _________ the first words my doctor said to me, and I saw tears and heads nodding in ____________ as I spoke. At the end of the presentation, applause filled the library hall. Little did they know that I had just finished treatment and still felt ____________ and tired. But somehow giving. the talk helped me stop being a(n) ____________ and start acting like a survivor.

Later, I gave more presentations. I won such great ____________ that I had the privilege of speaking ____________ cancer survivors across the country. And that makes all the ____________, not only to me but also to the world around me!

1.

A．touch

B．interest

C．condition

D．behavior

2.

A．hesitated

B．decided

C．demanded

D．remembered

3.

A．hospital

B．authority

C．library

D．charity

4.

A．recommendation

B．comment

C．announcement

D．reply

5.

A．explain

B．present

C．teach

D．pass

6.

A．curious

B．calm

C．unsettled

D．unsatisfied

7.

A．showed up

B．set off

C．reached out

D．turned around

8.

A．smoothly

B．constantly

C．randomly

D．secretly

9.

A．translating

B．predicting

C．recalling

D．imagining

10.

A．anger

B．agreement

C．confusion

D．anxiety

11.

A．alive

B．empty

C．athletic

D．weak

12.

A．lecturer

B．patient

C．audience

D．participant

13.

A．sympathy

B．fortune

C．recognition

D．inspiration

14.

A．in place of

B．at the mercy of

C．in spite of

D．on behalf of

15.

A．difference

B．preparation

C．judgement

D．profit

9 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Beth brought Louis to me when she came to visit me again.

I had to quit school and stay in the recovery center because of a rare disease. Beth was my best friend in the writing workshop. We just clicked. We both dreamed of taking writing as our career. So we often wrote about our life and shared it with each other. We even promised each other to co-author a book, a book of our own. But now ...

“I’m applying for my college this term. So I’ll be very busy in the following days. Please help me look after Louis, please ... Just drop me a quick note about it when it’s convenient for you.” She pressed her hands tightly together and looked at me anxiously. I stared at Louis, feeling bitter but hard to refuse. Beth kissed me goodbye.

That evening, I was left alone in the room, with the dog. Louis looked at me, shaking his tail. But I felt uninterested, so I lay on the bed, closing my eyes. Then some noises woke me up.

It was Louis, of course. This six-month-old puppy was laboriously(费力地) dragging his. large, hard-sided carrier. I watched in amazement. Then Louis dragged his worldly possessions, one by one: first, his bowl, then his ball and sweater. This project took most of the evening.

What happened next made me realize that not only did this dog have a mission but he obviously put thought and reasoning into each move. He took each of the personal items and put them in the carrier. After Louis finished packing his “suitcase”, he attempted to jump inside.

The message was quite clear. He wanted to go see his “mommy”—Beth. He must have seen her pack her suitcase and go away. He must do the same so he could find her.

It was so interesting that I couldn’t help taking out a pen and beginning to describe the whole thing in great detail and then emailed it to Beth. I almost got Beth’s reply immediately.

注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

“Tell me more about Louis.” Beth begged at the end of her email.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That summer, Beth gave me a special gift—a book of Louis’ daily journal.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . We tend to think of large cities as melting pots — places where people from all sorts of backgrounds can mix and interact. But according to new research, people in big cities tend to primarily interact with other individuals in the same socioeconomic bracket (阶层), but people in small cities and rural areas are much more likely to have diverse interactions.

The researchers used GPS data collected in 2017 from 9.6 million cellphones across 382 metropolitan (大都市的) areas in the United States to determine how often people of different socioeconomic ranks crossed paths during the day — essentially how many times people had the opportunity to interact, even briefly, with someone in a different income bracket. They collected data on almost 1.6 billion path-crossings.

This large amount of extremely precise data allowed the researchers to see what has been missed by similar studies in the past. People living in the 10 most populous metropolitan areas, which include cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, along with their surrounding areas, were significantly less likely to interact with people of different socioeconomic ranks than people in metropolitan areas with fewer than 100,000 residents.

The good news is that there are ways to build cities to promote more socioeconomic mixing. Looking at large cities, the researchers found that those that placed frequently-visited hubs (中心) in between different neighborhoods — instead of in the center of each neighborhood — were less separated.

“These big cities have managed to develop diverse interactions because the hubs that people visit the most — which turn out to be shopping centers, squares, and similar places — are between rich and poor neighborhoods,” said Hamed Nilforoshan, a doctoral researcher at Stanford University. “Those hubs act as bridges, allowing people to see each other and interact.”

1. What might be a conclusion of the new research?

A．Urban residents interact more.	B．Large cities act as melting pots.
C．Urbanization leads to different social ranks.	D．Big cities showcase socioeconomic separation.

2. How was the research carried out?

A．By bridging the income brackets.	B．By studying the frequency of interaction.
C．By comparing residents’ behavior patterns.	D．By collecting data on people’s social ranks.

3. What should city planners do to promote socioeconomic mixing?

A．Position the hubs properly.	B．Construct more shopping centers.
C．Control the urban expansion.	D．Design unique residential neighborhoods.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Income Bracket: What to Do with It?	B．Diverse Interactions Count in Big Cities
C．Socioeconomic Separation: How to Fix It?	D．Metropolitan Cities Are Great Melting Pots